Compliance with the RCPA’s CPDP provides evidence of continuing medical education and maintenance of professional standards in the practice of pathology. The Australian Medical Council mandates that
‘The education provider requires participants to select CPD activities relevant to their learning needs, based on their current and intended scope of practice within the specialty(s). The education provider requires specialists to complete a cycle of planning and self-evaluation of learning goals and achievements’.
This is in addition to the requirement for Fellows to confirm their CPDP compliance and their “recency” of practice as part of your annual medical registration renewal. If you have both clinical and laboratory clinical practices, then you should comply separately for these two areas fulfilling the relevant College requirements.
As you may be aware the Medical Board of Australia (MBA) continues to strongly signal that it will be introducing measures (sometimes referred to as “revalidation”) to not only ensure continuing education in your scope of practice, but also competence in the areas in which you practice. The MBA has also recently indicated that it will be enlisting the help of Colleges for guidance in appropriate activities for assuring individual specialist practitioner competence.